“Sad News! The Opening of the Great Pirate Era!”
What They Say:
Enraged by Orochi’s tyrannical acts, Oden raids his castle in the Flower Capital and points his sword at Orochi. However, hours later, people who were waiting for Oden to come out after defeating Orochi see the unexpected. Meanwhile, the King of the Pirates Roger’s execution and last words are printed in newspapers and spread across the world.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One Piece has taken us through a lot of the things that we learned very early on in the series with the start of the Great Pirate Era. But, doing this almost a thousand episodes into the series, we now have such a greatly expanded context to it that depending on how invested you are, you can see a lot more nuance, detail, and meaning to it all. I’ve enjoyed parts of this storyline, which isn’t easy as Oden has not been one of my favorites and the Wano side of things has long worn out its welcome for me, as it’s definitely been interesting to get so much time with Roger. I’m still wary on how good of an idea it was compared to leaving him a many of mystery, but it did give me more time with Little Buggy and Little Shanks.
With the start of this episode, we basically get enraged Oden as he, upon returning to Wano, has learned what’s been going on here. And his anger is focused entirely on Orochi who is trying to use Kaido’s name as his defense in order to survive this thing. We know how all of this plays out but there’s something about Oden when he’s truly gone beyond and the intensity is over the top – enough so that Orochi genuinely fears for his life. The protections he’s under is something that Oden didn’t expect, however, which turns this into a far different challenge for him (even as Orochi screams like a child about to be sliced up). With the Barrier-Barrier thing protecting him, there’s a chance for some dialogue here and we do see Orochi gaining back a bit of his spine, but really, it’s hard to take him seriously in a way. O f course, with what happens to Wano afterward, it’s obvious, but Orochi definitely turns into the loser here.
With Oden having to shift gears here completely, going from promised savor to a joke that nobody will take seriously, the turn is quick and he embraces it because he knows he must at this point. And it’s a humiliating thing that he goes through to be sure in such a public way. Working through all of that and showing what Oden ended up doing for a long time helps to connect us to more of the past, as does the other main sequence that the episode wants to get through. That’s in dealing with the news of Roger’s execution making its way into the paper and the words within that launched a thousand ships and a million dreams of becoming the Pirate King. It’s a nicely lightly expanded upon piece that does the job right.
In Summary:
One Piece gets things where they need to be and we’re finally catching up to where everything moves forward in the ways we know and understand. I wouldn’t be surprised at a bit more but I’m hopeful that things are going to get moving in the larger picture once again. There are some solid moments throughout this episode but I’m simply just so tired of Oden and Wano at this point that I’m just muddling through it, enjoying key moments at times but otherwise waiting to get on with things.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
